as seen in Coastal Sport & Wellness Fall 2009
To women it’s known as the M word or “the change”. Although many women coast through menopause without any symptoms at all, many are not so lucky. Hot flashes, sleep problems, mood swings and a general feeling of unhappiness roar in as the hormones our bodies had kept at peak levels wane. Thankfully hormone replacement has been prescribed for years to alleviate those with symptoms associated with menopause. All of that came to a screeching halt in 2002. The National Institute of Women’s Health Initiative came forward with bad news. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) used for the treatment of symptoms in menopausal women, could increase the risk of breast cancer, stroke and blood clots. Doctors immediately took action by discontinuing the therapy in their patient populations.
Since the 2002 NIH study was released, there have been new opinions within the medical community regarding different treatment options as well as criticism of the NIH study. With HRT no longer available as the most obvious option, women struggled to find other treatments to combat their symptoms. Frustrated with symptoms and no viable solution, many women turned to bio-identical hormones. More
